Re: [PATCH] arm64/numa: Add more vetting in numa_set_distance()

Will Deacon
2018-11-01T11:27:38Z

[ Nit: Please wrap your lines when replying -- I've done it for you here ]

On Tue, Oct 30, 2018 at 08:16:21AM +0530, Anshuman Khandual wrote:
> On 10/29/2018 08:14 PM, John Garry wrote:
> >>>>>  I think we should either factor out the sanity check
> >>>>>> into a core helper or make the core code robust to these funny configurations.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> OK, so to me it would make sense to factor out a sanity check into a core
> >>>>> helper.
> >>>>
> >>>> That, or have the OF code perform the same validation that slit_valid() is
> >>>> doing for ACPI. I'm just trying to avoid other architectures running into
> >>>> this problem down the line.
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>> Right, OF code should do this validation job if ACPI is doing it
> >>> (especially since the DT bindings actually specify the distance
> >>> rules), and not rely on the arch NUMA code to accept/reject
> >>> numa_set_distance() combinations.
> >>
> >> I would say this particular condition checking still falls under arch NUMA init
> >> code sanity check like other basic tests what numa_set_distance() currently does
> >> already but it should not be a necessity for the OF driver to check these.
> >
> > The checks in the arch NUMA code mean that invalid inter-node distance
> > combinations are ignored.
>
> Right and should not this new test (from != to && distance == LOCAL_DISTANCE) be
> one of them as well ? numa_set_distance() updates the table or just throws some
> warnings while skipping entries it deems invalid. It would be okay to have this
> new check there in addition to others like this patch suggests.

If we're changing numa_set_distance(), I'd actually be inclined to do the
opposite of what you're suggesting and move as much of this boilerplate
checking into the core code. Perhaps we could add something like
check_fw_numa_topology() and have both ACPI and OF call that so that the
arch doesn't need to worry about malformed tables at all.

> > However, if any entries in the table are invalid, then the whole table
> > can be discarded as none of it can be believed, i.e. it's better to
> > validate the table.
> >
>
> Agreed. slit_valid() on the ACPI parsing is currently enforcing that before
> acpi_numa_slit_init() which would call into numa_set_distance(). Hence arch
> NUMA code numa_set_distance() never had the opportunity to do the sanity
> checks as ACPI slit_valid() has completely invalidated the table.
>
> Unlike ACPI path, of_numa_parse_distance_map_v1() does not do any sanity
> checks on the distance values parse from the "distance-matrix" property
> and all the checks directly falls on numa_set_distance(). This needs to
> be fixed in line with ACPI
>
> * If (to == from) ---> distance = LOCAL_DISTANCE
> * If (to != from) ---> distance > LOCAL_DISTANCE
>
> At the same time its okay to just enhance numa_set_distance() test coverage
> to include this new test. If we would have trusted firmware parsing all the
> way, existing basic checks about node range, distance stuff should not have
> been there in numa_set_distance(). Hence IMHO even if we fix the OF driver
> part, we should include this new check there as well.

I don't see what we gain by duplicating the check. In fact, it has a few
downsides:

(1) It confuses the semantics of the API, because it is no longer clear
who "owns" the check

(2) It duplicates code in each architecture

(3) Some clever-cloggs will remove at least some of the duplication in
future

I'm not willing to accept the check in the arm64 code if we update the
OF code.

I think the way forward here is for John to fix the crash he reported by
adding the check to the OF code. If somebody wants to follow up with
subsequent patches to move more of the checking out of the arch code, then
we can review that as a separate series.

Will